Poll Position: "What Lies Beneath" (2000)

When I initially saw the trailer for “What Lies Beneath”, I was partly turned off. It screamed boring thriller at me with a played out story of happy couple suffers unholy bad luck. But nevertheless the movie needed to be watched. Thankfully enough two amazing cast members were staring in this movie; Harrison Ford and Michelle Pfeiffer. Though I am starting to doubt even a great pair of performers can save this severely boring looking movie. More on this after the break.

Norman (Ford) and Claire (Pfeiffer) have just recently sent their (Norman’s step) daughter off to college. Now with all time in the world, the couple can finally be together in perfect harmony. But all this spare time gets to Claire as she suspects the neighbour of murdering his wife, but the paranoia doesn’t stop there. She also thinks the house she is staying in is haunted with a ghost. Norman, a scientist, doesn’t believe in all this supernatural stuff and is having a hard time dealing with his wife’s hallucinations. Is Claire seeing all this, or is there a deeper secret tied up with the ghost that haunts her?

Norman tries his best to be supportive, but somethings he just won't  help with.

Initially the movie can be split up into three parts. The beginning is a suspense movie filled in with a mystery. The question being, who is this ghost and why is she bothering Claire? The overall feel of the suspense was all right. As much as I loved the subtle scare tactics hidden away in the background, which I’ll admit that made me jump a bit. The slow scenes with Claire freaking out that she just witnessed a murder were all too dragged out. It didn’t need to be this long to put the point across.

The middle I felt was the weakest part of the movie. Here we have Claire looking around for clues on the mystery woman that keeps appearing in front of her. Why is the ghost bugging me? What did I do wrong? How can I stop this ghost from bugging me? Are all questions Claire asks and she does reach an answer, but the trip there was tedious and boring. Filled with dull scenes of investigation, it is a long and boring interlude to the end. But luckily for me, some of the eerie and creepy scenes still appear once in a blue moon, keeping my interest long enough for the end. 

Good scary scenes are sprinkled throughout the movie.

The ending is the strongest suit of them all. A very thriller heavy ending where Claire finally gets her answer (of course she would, this is a movie) but it isn’t the most positive one. The closing 30 minutes of the movie is filled with twists that I did not see coming a mile away, but in hindsight should have been suspicious about. Where the movie started off slow with momentary surprises becomes a fast paced and intense finale.

One of my favourite roles from Pfeiffer.

Now I usually say that most horror movies have subpar acting performances. But not in the case of “What Lies Beneath”, instead we are given an amazing show by both Ford and Pfeiffer. Pfeiffer does carry a lot of the movie on her own shoulders a lot of the scenes are with her only in it. The chemistry between the two is mighty good.

Even though I sort of came into this movie similar to biting into a dirty apple, I still came out enjoying the film a little bit more than I hated. Nothing really stands out, it is just like any other apple out there, but there is a delightful crunch at the end that made the movie feels alright.  The movie isn’t all that scary or special in anyway. But the solid story and great performances makes this well enough to not only be bearable but slightly enjoyable. Also, if you haven't read Jim's post, here it is.